Vallée des Rois Mira Takla Parfum

The praises, the hymns, and the admittedly fantastic story “behind” the fragrance softened me: I wanted it too… The cherry on top was the generous donation from Turandot, which incidentally led me to some (!!) fragrances that I would hardly have considered otherwise.
So this month, I'm living on Aldi spaghetti, more or less, as other funds went into acquiring exquisite fragrances. What can you do…

Finally, the 30 ml Extrait bottle I bid on and eagerly awaited arrived. Hooray. Nothing spilled or leaked. Beautiful! Just the matte paper packaging with embossed stylized lotus flowers and golden lettering brought me joy, even more so the bottle in dark turquoise blue (my favorite color next to emerald green…) with the golden “necklace.”

I have solemnly applied this fragrance multiple times in the last few days; the Extrait, which rests heavily and almost oily in the bottle, is a dark liquid that already hints at its richness and high content of dissolved resins.

I can't add much to the scent analyses of my predecessors; most of it seems to have been said and described.
The initial notes seem modern: I smell the juicy, freshly squeezed lemon, bitter and sour. Green tones and fruity juiciness that I can't define more closely.

Only a short time later, these first chords fade away, and a powerful jasmine “strike” resounds, from the finest. Not the piercing, headache-inducing jasmine often found, but a noble, aged jasmine. Jasmine oil becomes more refined, milder, and velvety with aging. In India, wealthy parents gift their daughter a bottle of the finest jasmine oil at birth, which she is then supposed to use as perfume oil on her wedding night…. THEN it has gained in quality!

This jasmine thus dominates together with primal feminine ylang-ylang, night-velvety, sweet tuberoses, and a spicy fruity note reminiscent of candied fruits in the middle tones.
This fragrance still appears to me as a “modern” perfume; the mystique only sets in upon reaching the base.

An orchestra of resins sounds creamy, soothing, balsamic. Vanilla-almond tones of benzoin and heliotrope mix with noble woods --- an aura of nobility, wealth, and pleasant scent --- and then the wild animals emerge!

Not listed in the fragrance pyramid, I believe I can smell civet and castoreum. And what else - a distinctly earthy-animalistic odor spreads across my skin, sexual, offensive, and unmistakable, but lightly masked by finely pleated veils of resins and woods as well as flowers and oils. Elegant, yet with “intent.”

Bastet, the cat goddess of the Egyptians, would likely accept this fragrance as an offering, so much animalistic grace is revealed in this elixir of precious ingredients.
But would the magic from the bottle still work if this fragrance didn't come dressed in the garb and story of ancient Egypt? If it were called “Wonderflower” or “Mystic Resins,” lacking packaging and story, it would be just one among many, albeit one of the better ones!

Since I enjoy being seduced and enchanted here, this fragrance is for me a nose-readable story of the high aesthetic art of the Egyptians. They were truly masters at using cosmetics and perfume to present the body in the most seductive light.
The application of the finest oils, bathing in precious floral liquids was as normal (for the upper classes) as applying eyeshadow with crushed lapis lazuli. To perfume oneself was a normal preparation for the day or the night. The best was just good enough, frankincense from the land of Punt (likely: Somalia), resins and essential oils from afar…. - and this is how this perfume smells
A very long-lasting effect is ensured by the abundant resins, so that the fragrance with its complex balsamic note still lingers on skin and bed linen the next morning.

As a teenager, I read everything, but really everything, that was somehow available in book form about Egypt and the excavations, with red cheeks from excitement. Picture books were still in black and white back then, which was rather boring compared to HD images of today. However, this allowed the imagination to add something to the texts of descriptions and novels, something that is no longer possible today, as everything is overly clear.
So I read that when Howard Carter uncovered the sarcophagus lid of Tutankhamun, a lovingly and artistically woven flower wreath lay on all the gold and lapis of the mask, made of long-dried flowers, small resin beads, and other fragrant embellishments.
I was deeply moved back then that someone had placed this rather simple, final love greeting on all that splendor for the young pharaoh who had died so young.
For me, this fragrance has captured that love greeting, made it tangible.
A piece of Egypt, a hint of this wonderful culture seems to be trapped in the bottle.
And even if it’s just a good story…

The effect of this perfume is… to put it mildly, stunning! I get approached when I wear it - and my husband, well… let’s not talk about that in public ;-)